From the wooden dance floor that was there for all of Chicago's contemporary
dancers to perform in for over 30 years---Links Hall---"The Red Swan"
was more than I had expected to see in a typical contemporary dance show. It is
not just dancing....but it is the feelings that come from dancing. And Asimina
Chermos, the main star of the show, showed why she is the best of the
"newest" dancers out there.
She is probably the most famous Chicago area contemporary dancer around. But
I also liked the fact that she also mixes in ballet---perhaps the best ballet I
had seen from any contemporary dancer.
As a contemporary/performance art dancer myself, I had
appreciated the fact that this was the first live contemporary dance show I
ever seen in this dance space.
It was like you are in the original Blues Brothers movie as
the loud noise of the CTA "L" train passes by occasionally near Links
Hall, but most of the dancers and the audience didn't see to mind.
This venue on Clark and Sheffield,
right in the heart of Wrigleyville on the North Side of Chicago and a long
"stone's throw" away from Wrigley Field, looks almost like a loft
room, but it was the place where hundreds of contemporary dancers create their
independent dance shows ranging from Field
Sessions to Poonie's Cabaret.
The "Red Swan" basically is a dance project by
Asimina herself....the show's premise is to create a movement-based homage to
famous ballet dancer Margot Fonteyn, although with contemporary
twists....taking care not to segregate classical ballet (that Ms. Fonteyn is
famous for) from contemporary dance. The result is a multifacted dance.... that
is, you see some ballet, then contemporary, then you see some ballet again, and
so forth.
The "Red Swan" dance show was in three distinct
parts, and I used this to create my own comments related to the show the show.
PART I
Well, as the house opened to low lights, dancing had already
started---something like a "pre-show", as I sat down on stage. It was
a full house of about 90 people after about 19 minutes into the show.
This first part was what I call a contact improvisation
"warmup dance" greeting the crowd. (Contact improvisation is a type
of contemporary dance where at least two dancers communicate through movement,
but focusing on touching in various areas, and reacting to those sensations.)
In this improvisation, I saw 2 men and 4 ladies converge,
converse, contract and expand.
Out comes Asimina......away from the contact improvisation
circle, doing a handstand, and going back to the contact improvisation circle.
They are doing what I call call a "sixsome", a
type of orgy based on the sexual intimacy position called "threesome".
Then, the six break up into groups of 2 people, for a total
of 3 groups, for approximately 4-5, changing poses constantly, and each group
fluctuates in a different pose
in the changes.
Then, 2 dancers in black--one man, one woman--separate from the
contact improvisation pack for only about 25 seconds before they come back in
the "blob".
Asimina then pulls one of the black-donned dancers as if it
were a cart, and then, Asimina takes the lead, giving the red swan ballet tutu
to one of the red-donned dancers, and then Asimin falls on the floor again.
The swan-tutu seems to be like and endless moving prop as it
is passed from one dancer...to the next...and back to that dancer again.
A knock is heard from the east side of the room. Asimina
responds and opens up the escape door to the dance studio, and it is a tall man
who was in winter garb. After he takes off the winter garb, he is in khaki
pants and a tee shirt. I was anticipating that he was going to be in a black
leotard and a ballet shirt because this work is in honor of
Margot Fonteyn, but this bizarre garb tells me that this is
going to be a contemporary reaction to Margot Fonteyn....not a strict
"homage" to it.
After Asimina walks up and stops at the end of stage right,
going into a ballet move called a posé
(where the free leg is in tendu en avant,
in front of the back leg, and one of the arms is forward and straight out, and
the other arm is straight back but more to the side), the tall man runs up to Asimina so that he is behind her very closely...he
invites her to reciprocate. After a few seconds, she is invited and then he
throws Asimina right into a ballet lift where she splits the legs while her
back is arched (this is called a grand
jété cambré profonde assis), and then, he makes her land and she goes down
the the floor in modern dance stag movements (A stag is a folding of the legs
in opposite directions, which is very
common in jazz dance). Then, she
gets up, runs back to stage R.
This was in homage to Margot Fonteyn's pas de deux dances
(or "dance for two", or "duet"), where
she was lifted by the lead dancer so many times into positions like the fish
dive. Regrettably, no fish dive (which is called pas poisson in French---literally, it means "fish step) poses
were done in the show but the grand jeté lift
was enough.
Then the dance sequence is repeated several times, sometimes
with some variations.
One of the variations was quite comedic is the
"reverse role" variation, where the tall man goes
up into his posé, and Asimina
pretends to be a male ballet dancer. She approaches, she invites contact with
the man, and then she was thinking of lifting him up. She starts but she stops
and refuses to lift him in jest....causing a slight laugh in the audience.
PART II
Here, a gray/silver partition permeates stage right, and
focus is on the ballet barre of the studio. Here, Asimina
dons the red swan tutu and makes a slightly strict homage to Margot Fonteyn.
A slide projector is used to create something like a sea
picture on the south wall as a backdrop, yet it also allows a shadow silouette
of Asimina when the projector light shines on her.
The part starts off with Asimina with the ballet barre on
the right. Several barre exercises are demonstrated as the music slowly starts----including
a
développé (done
several times; this is a ballet move where the free leg slides up on the other
leg that is already in relévé, or on
half-point, and then the free leg is extended out straight to the side so it
is horizontal to the floor), ronds de jambe (leg circles
with the leg straight and usually not letting the toe leave
the floor), and various cambré
positions (leaning positions with the upper body so you lean forward, or back,
or to the side).
Next, she goes away from the partition to do centre work
(so-called because you use the center of the stage to do
ballet movements). The swan tutu was the main focus of her
work as the lighting turned semi-dark but allow the
brightness of the red tutu to show her great dance skills.
The music is described as mainly white noise with a voice
doing some syllabic spoken word, especially she runs around in pas couru en pointe (little walking
steps on point or on toes) as she runs around. The bizarre part was when during
her pas couru sequence, she seems to
tap on every pas couru, a feat not
usually seen in lady ballet dancers. That is what makes Asimina so different
than even the best female ballet dancers. As she does those running steps in
several series of circles on the floor, the music increases
volume as the spoken word voice goes away, leading to
continous electronic taps, and as she leaves the stage, the electronic taps
(probably for reactionary purposes) continue to the loudest apex....and then,
as soon as the music began....the taps suddenly stop.
PART III
Then, a guitarist comes in for his improvised music, as
Asimina changes into a jazz dance garb in all black, including leotard tights.
Most of the time, the guitar music is improvised, with sudden stops, sudden
accelerations, brief runs of various numbers of notes, and a lot of distortion
techniques.
This time, she does another solo dance, but much differently
this time. There are elements of ballet, but more of a combination of jazz,
contemporary, and modern all at the same time.
I am thinking that Asimina was honoring jazz dancer Christy Lane more
than Margot Fonteyn, but I also see homages to Debbie Allen and probably Twyla
Tharp and Katherine Durham here. She does a lot more floor work in the part,
doing various amounts of stunt falls and stag body rolls, and several times,
she goes into the "swan" pose on the floor...that is, a common ballet
move where one leg is folded and flexed in front or in the back, and the other
leg is out in front, straight, and the upper body flexes forward so that the
head touches near the toes, and the arms are forward and outstreched, also
straight.
In the middle of the dance, she does a arabesque penchée
(or "leaning arabesque"), probably the best one
ever that I had seen from any ballet dancer.
The show lasted 54 minutes but it was the best contemporary
dance show ever because I had seen a wide variety of dances. Asimina Chremos
was not recognizable to me until I saw her in the John Cage Musicircus in Chicago in October 2007,
which I myself performed in as a pianist....but after seeing "The Red
Swan", now I know why I need to recognize this dancer so highly.
